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Credit Schiano for Rutgers turnaround

Written off in mid-October, Rutgers is in the midst of one of the most dramatic turnarounds in college football history under coach Greg Schiano. (Jason Towlen/HNT)

Having worked alongside Rutgers coach Greg Schiano as an assistant at the University of Miami, Larry Coker was curious to see how his former colleague would react to the Scarlet Knights’ poor start.

Coker, now working as a color analyst for ESPN after a six-year head coaching stint at Miami, where he won the national championship in 2001, met with Schiano the day before he called the Scarlet Knights’ Oct. 4 game at West Virginia.

“I just wanted to get a feeling of how Greg was, and how he felt about his team,” Coker recalled. “As I left that meeting I was really surprised by how positive Greg was. It wasn’t a situation where he said, ‘You know, we’ve screwed this up. We’re not good enough.’ It was all, ‘We’re doing the right things. If we keep doing the right things, we’ll win.’ ”

Coker was impressed by Schiano’s conviction, but hardly a believer. Especially when he met with Schiano again the day before the Connecticut game two weeks later, when Rutgers’ record stood at 1-5.

“If I had to wager my house on it,” Coker said of the possibility of Rutgers turning its season around, “I probably wouldn’t have taken that bet, no. But I think the thing is, if you’re a weak coach, maybe your team gives in and succumbs to that pressure.”

The Scarlet Knights didn’t, taking the lead of their head coach through a five-game winning streak.

“Coach Schiano, he never quits on anything he does,” linebacker Kevin Malast said. “He’s a true role model for the program. Every day what we try to do is we try to match Coach’s intensity. He sets the tone and everybody’s following him.”

Now 6-5 heading into its regular-season finale against Louisville on Thursday (7:45 p.m., ESPN) at Rutgers Stadium, Rutgers is bidding to become just the seventh team in college football to make a bowl game after a 1-5 start.

While many called for Mike Teel to be benched midway through the season, Schiano stood by his fifth-year signal caller. (Mark R. Sullivan/HNT)

All that was missing from Cincinnati coach Brian Kelly in the aftermath of his club’s 13-10 win over Rutgers was a shovel. The Bearcats had left the Scarlet Knights buried for dead on Oct. 11.

Or so everyone thought. Everyone, except Kelly.

“I thought they could win every game they played,” Kelly said. “I think I said that publicly, that it wouldn’t surprise me if Rutgers won all their games. I just felt like it was a matter of time before they were able to play better football, and they certainly have. Arguably they’re playing now better than any team in the league.”

Kelly, whose Bearcats clinched the Big East championship this weekend, agreed with Coker that Rutgers’ turnaround is a tribute to Schiano.

“They’re well-coached,” Kelly said. “And I thought obviously when Rutgers wasn’t playing well, they had a lot of distractions. You can add the stadium expansion to that, you can add not getting expectations met. Greg Schiano did a tremendous job of keeping his football team together. I think that’s why Rutgers is where they are right now. It starts with their head coach.”

Coker was the ESPN color analyst for Rutgers’ win over Connecticut, the day quarterback Mike Teel was booed by the Scarlet Knights’ faithful. If ever there was a time to make a change at quarterback, Coker figured this was it.

But Schiano stood by Teel, letting his third-year starter battle through the worst slump of his career.

And Rutgers’ turnaround is due in no small part to Teel, whose thrown for more passing yards than all but two quarterbacks in the country over the past month.

“Obviously he believed in his quarterback, but I also think Mike Teel knowing his coach believes in him makes a big difference,” Coker said. “And I think he wanted to reward his coach for his belief.”

Teel confirmed that last week, and the fifth-year senior said the unit he engineers wanted to do the same.

“Not giving up on me, not giving up on the offense in general. Coach let us keep working until we got it fixed,” Teel said. “We said it while we were struggling, we’re guys that have gotten it done before. Credit Coach for having the faith in us to get it done.”

Twice in recent weeks Schiano has been asked whether he considers this season to be his greatest coaching accomplishment.

“I try not to judge right now what we’re doing, I’ll do that at the end of the season,” Rutgers’ eighth-year skipper said. “”It’s been without a doubt a different year as far as the way it’s gone and the way it’s going but if you waste time judging it now, you’re wasting time because it’s not over. You gotta look at any season as a cumulative body of work. Right now we’re still in the thick of it.”

While Schiano isn’t about to start grading his effort with a game remaining in the regular-season, Rutgers athletics director Bob Mulcahy assesses his head coach’s performance on a daily basis.

“In my view, the measure of a coach is when he can succeed in adversity. And I think this may be his greatest coaching job because of what he had to turn around,” Mulcahy said last week. “The reason I say that is because the same qualities that he revealed through the first eight years here are the same qualities he put forward this year. Even in our private conversations after the 1-5 start, he said to me, ‘Bob, I still believe in this team. And he consistently was positive with these kids. Never went negative with them. Always told them how good they were and that it would come around, and it has. I think one of the key attributes that he has is no matter how he may feel personally after a loss, he always finds a way to be
positive with the team so that they continue to believe in themselves. And I think that’s one of the qualities that helps turn around a season like this.”

If Mulcahy believed the Scarlet Knights could rebound from 1-5, he wasn’t truely sold until meeting with Schiano in the aftermath of the Cincinnati defeat.

“Even in our private conversations he was consistent in his faith in his team and where he thought they could go,” Mulcahy said. “It’s not in his makeup or his coaching style to be anything less than disciplined and consistent. I’ve had great confidence in Greg Schiano from the day I introduced him, and I have never wavered in that confidence. And that confidence has been returned tenfold.”

About Keith Sargeant

Keith Sargeant is a graduate of Middlesex County College and Kean University. A Home News Tribune staff writer since August 1997, Keith has been covering Rutgers sports since 2000, serving as the Scarlet Knights' football beat writer since 2006.

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About the Author

Jerry CarinoJerry Carino has covered sports for the Gannett New Jersey newspapers since 1996 and has been on the college basketball beat since 2003. A native of Old Bridge, he also teaches journalism at Kean University.E-mail Jerry

Josh NewmanJosh Newman has worked for the Press since September 2004 and began covering Shore Conference sports full time in September 2006. He is a 2004 graduate of Springfield College with a degree in communications/sports journalism.E-mail Josh

Ryan DunleavyRyan Dunleavy has covered Rutgers athletics for more than a decade, dating back to his days as a student at his alma mater. He became New Jersey Press Media’s Rutgers women’s basketball beat writer in 2009 and Rutgers football beat writer in 2013. Since joining the staff in 2004, the Morris County native also has covered the NFL, MLB, NBA, the Somerset Patriots and high school sports.E-mail Ryan